ALAMOSA — The Alamosa City Council approved a plan Wednesday night to put a sales tax before voters in November to raise approximately $1.3 million to fund a Street Trust Fund. Currently, the city budgets $500,000 for maintaining the streets that will be added to the new fund.

According to Heather Brooks, city manager, repairs to the streets will be broken into three pieces spread out over several years. She explained this would give the city some flexibility in which streets can be repaired, mainly if the city receives grants. The first piece will be years 2020 to 2023, then the years 2024 to 2027, and finally, years 2028 to 2030. The sales tax would sunset after 2030.

A map of the proposed street repairs is on page 2.

The council also approved the ordinance that limited “sexually oriented businesses to the industrial zone; added State Avenue to the setback of such businesses from highway frontage; to change the distance requirements on head shops from 600 feet to 1,000 feet from other head shops, and to change the time limitations on placement of signs on vacant land.”

At first, the council voted on whether to eliminate the change how long signs could remain on vacant lots from six straight months. However, it failed 2-4, but the overall passage of the ordinance was 5-1 with Councilman Charlie Griego voting no.

The council also accepted a bid from Robbins Construction of $453,578 for construction of the Montana Azul Park in southwest Alamosa. The total cost of the project is $814,480 of which, $441,394 is from grants, and $80,242 is provided by staff in-kind” work.